Billy was a kid when 'Spectrum' hit the charts

It was 40 years ago and Billy Cobham, by his own admission, was "cheeky." And when you're in England, that's not a good thing.

Translated? Flippant, or pretty much of a smart you-know-what. Here was this 29-year-old drummer thinking he could record an album.

"Drummers don't make records," Cobham said, looking back. "So I made a record. I was petrified, actually."

Yet, "Spectrum," with Cobham at the helm of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, became a jazz fusion classic.

"I didn't know how good it was," Cobham said.

And here he is, four decades later, taking his band that includes four ex-Mahavishnu mates on an extended tour that includes Napa's Uptown Theatre as his only NorCal appearance Sept. 27.

"It's wonderful to have the opportunity to come up and perform for the Napa community," said Cobham with an eye on an October tour in Europe.

Amazing, he said, that it's been 40 years since that fateful recording.

"Yeah, I can't believe it. It's a good thing,"

Cobham said.

The actual album was finished "in a blink," Cobham said, from one rehearsal to the final mix in London in

a week.

"We decided to make this album tongue in cheek to see if I could find a gig here and there," he said. "I was just really dabbling in arranging. The next thing you know, six months later, someone from the studio says, 'Hey, man, that's a great record you got.' They said it was on the charts."

Sure enough, it quickly reached No. 31, "and rising with a bullet."

"I'm like, 'How did that happen?'" Cobham said. "I wasn't trying to make any big noise. It's one of those things that nobody saw coming, including me."

Sure, technology has changed tremendously since then, Cobham said. But when it comes to a record's quality, it's all about "the feeling behind the record."

"I've heard a lot of Rolling Stones and Beatles records that sound awful," he said. "It's about the feeling. You're seeing what you really feel and there's an audience out there to share those feelings and it's something people can relate to, you've got

something."

If "the groove is really heartfelt in mind and body and everything works together, it will have a lasting effect in perpetuity on the public," Cobham said.

It's about sharing and not about self-serving, he noted.

"People want to show off so much what they learned in school. They want to unleash all that information through their egos," Cobham said. "So they miss the point."

Through his career, Cobham's played with Carlos Santana, George Benson, Miles Davis, and other music legends.

Davis, said Cobham, "was a great manager of artists. He knew how to chose the right people and match them up with the music so the music was in their wheel house. When five players walked into the studio, they blended together."

Rarely does a young performer turn Cobham's head these days, he said.

"When I do hear something, I'll think, 'That's nice. What's he going to sound like in 20 years?'"

Cobham hears "great" bandied around frequently, but he has his definition.

"When someone's great, the personality has to be very strong, very dynamic," he said. "And you have to be a leader. I don't know too many who were followers who were great on any level. You have to do something that makes you stand out in any situation. 'Greatness' and 'unique' are words that stand together."

Cobham has come a long, long way since those early days during his first gig as a bandleader.

"I was frightened," he said. "I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. This is a long process that runs through life. I'm always

learning."

Too good to practice? No way, said Cobham.

"I never stop practicing. It's 365 days, 24/7. And I don't have to have a drum set in front of me," he said. "It can be in my mind."

When this tour's finished, Cobham returns to Switzerland, his home since he left New York City 37 years ago.

"It's a very quiet place," he said. "I have the life I feel is for me."